Cicero was saltier than I remembered him. And of course he himself was undoubtedly a politician.
Politicians are not born; they are excreted.
Category: Quote of the Day
Aphorisms, proverbs, wise sayings and other witty, pithy stuff
14APR2018 – Quote of the Day
As an old married man, I know whereof he speaks.
The Boss – Incidentally, you never told me. Are you married?
Zorba – Am I not a man? And is not a man stupid? I’m a man. So, I married. Wife, children, house. Everything. The full catastrophe.
Zorba the Greek (movie) 1964
13APR2018 – Quote of the Day
I’m guessing he would be the expert.
“No soldier ever really survives a war.”
Audie Murphy
12APR2018 – Quote of the Day
Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number. The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible.
Stonewall Jackson
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11APR2018 – Quote of the Day
“It’s a Gift” and “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” are two of my favorite movies. I often tell Camera Girl that she reminds me of the wife in those movies. And she often throws things at me afterwards. Fields was a sort of genius in my opinion.
“No doubt exists that all women are crazy; it’s only a question of degree.”
W. C. Fields
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10APR2018 – Quote of the Day
Sometime soon I’ll have to write a book review of Zorba the Greek. I have a love/hate relationship with the book but every few years I have to reread it. I think I read it not because the book is flawless (far from it) but because Zorba represents the essential component of the male soul, force of will.
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Chapter 19
… ‘Let’s get back to our subject! What about Zeus?’
‘Ah! the poor chap!’ sighed Zorba. ‘I’m the only one to know what he suffered. He
loved women, of course, but not the way you think, you pen-pushers! Not at all! He
was sorry for them! He understood what they all suffered and he sacrificed himself for
their sakes! When, in some god-forsaken country hole, he saw an old maid wasting
away with desire and regret, or a pretty young wife – or even if she wasn’t at all pretty,
even if she was a monster – and her husband away and she couldn’t get to sleep, he
used to cross himself, this good fellow, changed his clothes, take on whatever shape
the woman had in mind and go to her room.
‘He never bothered about women who just wanted petting. No! Often enough even he
was dead-beat: you can understand that. How could anybody satisfy all those she-
goats? Ah! Zeus! the poor old goat, More than once he couldn’t be bothered, he didn’t
feel too good. Have you never seen a billy after he’s covered several she-goats? He
slobbers at the mouth, his eyes are all misty and rheumy, he coughs a bit and can
hardly stand on his feet. Well, poor old Zeus must have been in that sad state quite
often.
‘At dawn he’d come home, saying: “Ah! my God! whenever shall I be able to have a
good night’s rest? I’m dropping!” And he’d keep wiping the saliva from his mouth.
‘But suddenly he’d hear a sigh: down there on earth some woman had thrown off her
bedclothes, gone out onto the balcony, almost stark naked, and was sighing enough
to turn the sails of a mill! And my old Zeus would be quite over-come.
“Oh, hell! I’ll have to go down again!” he’d groan.
“There’s a woman bemoaning her lot! I’ll have to go and console her!”
‘And it went on like that to such an extent that the women emptied him completely. He
couldn’t move his back, he started vomiting, became paralysed and died. That’s when
his heir, Christ, arrived. He saw the wretched state the old man was in: “Beware of
women!” he cried.’
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09APR2018 – Quote of the Day
When I was grade school kid every English teacher made you read Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.” But unlike most of the stuff given to us that story spoke to me. And after a lifetime of doing stupid things it’s all the more resonant.
Following at the man’s heels was a big native dog. It was a wolf dog, gray-coated and not noticeably different from its brother, the wild wolf. The animal was worried by the great cold. It knew that this was no time for traveling. Its own feeling was closer to the truth than the man’s judgment. In reality, it was not merely colder than 50 below zero; it was colder than 60 below, than 70 below. It was 75 below zero. Because the freezing point is 32 above zero, it meant that there were 107 degrees of frost.The dog did not know anything about temperatures. Possibly in its brain there was no understanding of a condition of very cold, such as was in the man’s brain. But the animal sensed the danger. Its fear made it question eagerly every movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire. The dog had learned about fire, and it wanted fire. Otherwise, it would dig itself into the snow and find shelter from the cold air.
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08APR2018 – Quote of the Day
I copied this from the public domain Project Gutenberg website but the translation that I know it from is by Howard Thayer Kingsbury and of course from Jose Ferrer’s tour de force in the 1950 Hollywood film version. I’ll ignore Steve Martin’s Roxanne as too awful to consider. I have to take the time to watch Gérard Depardieu’s 1990 version someday.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
A Play in Five Acts by Edmond Rostand (Translated from the French by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard)
Scene 5.II
THE DUKE (pausing, while she goes up): Ay, true,–I envy him. Look you, when life is brimful of success –Though the past hold no action foul–one feels A thousand self-disgusts, of which the sum Is not remorse, but a dim, vague unrest; And, as one mounts the steps of worldly fame, The Duke’s furred mantles trail within their folds A sound of dead illusions, vain regrets, A rustle–scarce a whisper–like as when, Mounting the terrace steps, by your mourning robe Sweeps in its train the dying autumn leaves.
07APR2018 – Quote of the Day
This is not a very literal translation but any man who’s ever been married understands it in his very bones. Well, bless their contrary little hearts anyway.
These impossible women!
How they do get around us!
The poet was right:
Can’t live with them,
or without them.
Aristophanes
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06APR2018 – Quote of the Day
This quote is sometimes misattributed to Aristotle.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Will Durant